Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Privilege of Giving

Today Arthur C. Brooks gave an excellent talk at our forum, titled "The Privilege of Giving." He told us about research he has been involved in that shows a strong correlation between giving (of time and money) and happiness, wealth, health, etc.

**Charity brings happiness and happiness brings success**

One reason is because we alleviate our stress by giving, and people who do their job with less stress are happier.


But the best thing he said was this:

When we give, we are helping other people, but we are also beneficiaries of our own giving. If you really want to help someone else, give the gift of giving. What can you do to help someone else give? He suggested that in thinking about this, we overcome the following myths:

1. Giving makes us poorer
2. People are naturally selfish
3. Giving is a luxury
4. Our nation can afford to substitute government for private giving


Just something to think about.

1 comment:

Barbara Rich said...

Thanks for sharing, Abby! It's so true.